You get a lot of time to think when you’re pounding the pavement. Sometimes I just mouth the words to whatever song is blasting away on my iPod. Sometimes I mull over a string of numbers (work numbers, keto numbers, financial numbers, etc…). And sometimes, I have long, in-depth conversations with the various voices in my head…just to work shit out.

Sometimes, it’s the only intelligent conversation I have all day…

For a while now, I’ve called this little stretch of my walk the Cathedral.

It’s nothing that special, really. The owners of this particular piece of property decided to plant bushes all along the boundary of their lot. Those plantlings did what greenery does, and grew – eventually getting tall enough to clasp branch-hands with the trees on the median. For the entire spring & summer, the branches have been trimmed back over the sidewalk so people don’t have to push through the bush to get where they’re going – but they haven’t trimmed more than that.

It’s a landmark on my journey where I stop for just a moment, and breathe a huge sigh of relief. It’s here that I get out of the hot sun and soak in a little shade. In my head, this little canopy is the ‘official’ boundary between the industrial leg and the park leg, and marks where I’m ‘officially’ on the way home.

But this morning – I walked up to the Cathedral in horror.

LOOK AT WHAT THEY DID!

The Cathedral has fallen! Those murdering bastards BUTCHERED it!

**SOB**

I got half a mind to march up to the door and give ’em a serious piece of the mind I’ve got left.

On the weekend of Memorial Day, 2016, I decided, rather on a whim, to give this Keto thing that my friend was on, a try.

Soooo…like all good diets, I made a spreadsheet.

Wait a minute???

One of the things that ketoer’s harp on is consumption tracking in the beginning. In order to figure out what to cut from your dietary intake, you gotta first know what -exactly- you’re putting in your mouth. In this age of smart phones and apps, most suggest my fitness pal to track their intake.

I’m not romantically, physically, emotionally or mentally tied to my smart phone. In fact, the more I can ignore the demonic little piece of tech, the better I like it…so nix on the whole “there’s an app for that” thing. But I am a self-confessed excel junkie – so a spreadsheet to track daily, weekly, monthly intakes was right up my alley.

A year later – I’d say I’ve had some very noticeable results.

I don’t know how much I weighed when I started, as my SOP was to avoid scales like the plague, but I’m gonna guess it was upwards of 260. At 5’4″ and that much poundage, yea, I was a ball. But, hey…round is a shape, right?

I know I went from size 22-24W pants to a size 16 – and even those are now starting to bag. Ditto on some of my favorite shirts. I went to the local Goodwill a couple of weeks back, and went mad in their shirts department…I can now wear a ladies size large. I’d have been lucky to find 2x or 3x that fit before.

People I haven’t seen in a while are starting to tell me “Man…you’ve lost a LOT of weight…” I usually tell ’em “Keto done me good…”

I made a choker necklace for S a year+ ago – it didn’t buckle around my neck then – it does now. And even my ring (featured a couple of times here on the T&T) got too loose to wear without emergency reinforcements!

I won’t discuss the underwear…you’re welcome!

Am I curious enough to actually step on a scale to see how much tonnage I’ve removed? Maybe.

Anyway – here’s me before and a year into Keto… and looking forward to year 2!

Well…that didn’t go according to plan. I checked the weather Sunday night, and saw in the forecast.

50% chance of rain at 7am. 95% chance of rain at 4pm.

Needless to say – I took the car to work today.

Later in the week, I may be able to squeeze in that all important, first walk, as Wednesday is supposed to be in the early 40’s in the AM, a fantastic 56 for the walk home, and the rain should have moved off by then.

I’ve been watching the weather for the past 2 weeks – waiting for the temperatures to rise in the morning.

I’ve got a backpack to stuff all my work stuff in, so I don’t have to carry things in my hands.

The iPod will be on the charger Sunday night…

Because Monday, it’s supposed to be in the 40’s at 7am, without the threat of rain.

I’m walking to work 😀

Funny, how I’m actually excited about this. Me. The person who, just a year ago, had serious worries about my heart bursting through my chest by walking A BLOCK to get to my car…is gonna walk over a mile…

I rifled through my mailbox yesterday, standing in the hall, like I always do. I pulled out the obvious advertisements and marketing come-on’s, and stuffed them in the recycling bin conveniently placed right next to me, just like clockwork. Better than having to haul that paper up the stairs so I can toss it in the comfort of my apartment.

Well, yesterday, one of the things I pitched was an advertisement for Catherines. It’s a clothing boutique-y place in this area that caters to ‘women of size.’

Last time I was in Catherines, in January (I got a gift card), I couldn’t find a thing that fit me. I ended up getting some socks. Since then, I’ve been tossing the brightly-colored light cardstock in the recycling without noticing anything other than the name.

I just HAVE to put this little tidbit of info up for the world & sundry to see…because if you don’t check with the internet in when doing something fitness-related, it doesn’t count…right?

This weekend, I took advantage of an INSANE weather pattern which settled over my patch of Waukesha. Our temperature monitoring devices registered over 60 degrees.

**glances at the calendar & map**

It’s FEBRUARY. In WISCONSIN.

So I did what any sane/slightly winter-sick person would do under the circumstances. I gave the heavy winter garb the finger…walked out of the house in a sleeveless shirt & flip flops, plugged the earbuds into the iPod, and took a jaunty little stroll.

I. Wore. Flip Flops. In February. In Wisconsin.

I walked 1.5 miles. It took me 30 minutes. I didn’t have to stop with my feet cramping up, my heart threatening to jump outta my chest, or my lungs laboring to convert enough O2 to fuel the continuing mechanization of my muscles.

By an amazing coincidence…I live 1.5 miles from my employer. I drive to work because, up until this point, I’ve been fat and flabby and the only shape I’ve been in is geometric.

When the weather turns nice for good this spring – I’m leaving the car at home. I’m walking to work.